The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has summoned a Nigerian woman for questioning after she was seen in a viral video apparently tearing up her husband’s passport at Lagos airport.
The woman who was identified as Favour Igiebor, was seen screaming at her husband in the video while pieces of the Nigerian passport lay on the floor.
From further reports, it was gathered that she had just returned from Europe alongside her husband and children and landed at the Murtala Mohammed airport where the incident happened in front of several travellers.
“I tore it,” she was heard saying in the video.
Owing to this, the NIS released a statement saying that they were looking into the issue.
What They’re Saying
“The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has launched formal investigation, following the circulation of a video on social media, showing a female traveler [sic] destroying a Nigerian Standard Passport at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos.
“The individual involved has been identified as Mrs. Favour Igiebor,” the statement read.
Why It Matters
Destroying the Nigerian passport is a criminal offence that is punishable by up to a year in prison.
If Mrs. Igiebor were to be charged, she would be the first person to be charged to court for damaging the Nigerian passport.
In recent months, the Nigerian government has been clamping down on protecting its national symbols and paraphernalia, including making illegal, the common practice of throwing around the national currency –the Naira at social events.
